Graduation Ride: BOS to MN
My buddy and I are seniors in college planning to ride from Boston to northern MN for a fishing trip when we graduate next June. We think this will be the perfect way to celebrate 4 hard years of work!
We’re both experienced athletes (he is an ultramarathoner and seasoned bikepacker and I am a lifetime distance runner), but we haven’t spent much time biking on trails in the northeast.
Hoping you folks could offer some advice on any gravel or dirt trails between BOS and MN so we don’t have to be on the road the whole time.
Not looking for final destination recommendations as we have a particular lake picked out already, but would also appreciate recs for stops along the way!
We plan to do a mix of camping and motels/airbnbs over 14-16 days for around 110 miles/day so trails w good camping spots would also be helpful.
Thanks 🙂
by surplus-of-beans
7 Comments
Wisconsin perspective:
If you plan on the lake express ferry (Muskegon to Milwaukee) you’ll be able to ride trail almost completely across Wisconsin and easily hook up with the MRT in Minnesota for a large part of your trip. Komoot does a great job routing on gravel trails in WI. The lake express is much faster than the SS badger, but also more expensive. I’ve taken the badger and it’s a hoot but slow. And Manitowoc and points west aren’t exactly bike havens. I lived near Sheboygan for ten years and biked a lot but Southern WI is much nicer.
Averaging 110 miles day after day is a lot, even without camping gear!
Have fun!
Don’t use gmaps… It’s going to send you on highways and BS like this.
Crossing New York will be easiest on the Erie Canal Trail, its mostly bike path with some road through the bigger cities plus you can camp at the lock houses or motel/hotel in the towns. It runs from Albany to Buffalo.
Check out the Great Northern Bikepacking Route which is mainly in Canada but dips into northern Minnesota. TripLonger on Instagram is doing that route right now.
I’ve found [this map](https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/87160d5361694d899f07e67ce2f13bd5) to be pretty accurate for gravel roads in MN/WI. I might recommend riding north through MI and across the UP, northern WI, and entering MN at Duluth rather than going south through WI and MSP- it’ll probably be quieter and I find the terrain to be much more interesting (the driftless region is very cool but after that you’ll end up riding through a lot of flat, open farmland approaching and leaving MSP). Check out the [MORE](https://www.michiganoffroadexpedition.com) route if you’re interested in heading that way.
If you are planning to go across Michigan and jump take the boat in ludington I would check out the MI coast to coast route.
[cycle.travel](http://cycle.travel) punch in the start and finish, see what comes up, polish with the local advice from here.